The UpTake: Cambridge-based AirPooler asked the FAA to confirm the legality of its plane-sharing business model and the FAA's convoluted response says the company is violating rules.

Steve Lewis, co-founder and CEO of Cambridge-based airplane-sharing startup AirPooler, said a letter that threatens to jeopardize AirPooler's business model is a sign of the Federal Aviation Administration 'crushing innovation.'

"In order to promote that industry, you have to permit innovation," he said in an interview. "Over the last 20 years, the price of airplane fuel has been soaring and pilots can no longer fly and do what they love. As a result, the whole aviation industry is in crisis. If they're going to crush innovation, they're not tending to that part of their mission."

AirPooler, a 2014 startup finalist in the MassChallenge startup accelerator program, offers a website where pilots of small planes can share expenses of flights with aviation enthusiast-passengers. The model is similar to Northeastern University-born plane-sharing website Flytenow, which could also be in jeopardy after the FAA memo.

The letter was sent to AirPooler after the startup had requested the FAA confirm the legality of its plane-sharing business model.

In the spring, AirPooler had solicited help from the FAA's former assistant chief counsel to ensure that the startup's business model was following all the rules. To the company's knowledge, the service was legal under FAA regulations.

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